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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Beijing’s list of triumphs is getting endless - fastest train, biggest dam, sustaining an average economic growth rate of more than 9% over the past two decades, three manned space flights, building a railway across the Tibetan plateau, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and this year's mammoth Shanghai World Expo. The world is watching as China plans more marvels in the near future.

China on Tuesday unveiled what it described as the world's fastest bullet train, which will connect two of the country's industrial hubs travelling at an average speed of 350 km per hour. The rail link between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the latest addition to China's fast-expanding high-speed rail network that is already the world's largest, covers the 200-km distance in only 45 minutes, reducing the travelling time from 78 minutes.

The home-built CRH380 bullet train has been recorded travelling at 420 km per hour, a world record. It will, however, travel between the two cities at less than full tilt, at an average speed of 350 km per hour. China's high-speed rail network now stretches over 7,431 km. The government plans to expand the network to over 16,000 km by 2020. Investment in the high-speed rail network has gathered pace since the first line, connecting Beijing with the port city Tianjin, opened in 2008. Following the $586-billion stimulus plan that was announced in November 2008, spending on infrastructure projects has increased substantially. China is investing an estimated $300 billion on its high-speed rail network. The investment has divided opinion — some planners have cautioned that local governments will struggle to recoup the investment. Others have argued the rail network will spur economic development by boosting connectivity. “The operation of the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed rail line will help alleviate traffic pressure in the Yangtze River Delta region”, which is in China's manufacturing heartland, said Liu Zhijun of the Minister of Railways. The Ministry forecasts that passengers will make more than three billion trips in and out of the Yangtze delta in 2010, spurring development. China has also begun work on a 1,318-km high-speed rail line linking the country's two most important cities — Beijing and Shanghai. The $33-billion line will open in 2012, reducing the travel time between the capital and the financial centre in half, to just five hours.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.

The Library of Congress was established by Congress in 1800, and was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century. After much of the original collection had been destroyed during the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold 6487 books, his entire personal collection, to the library in 1815.After a period of decline during the mid-19th century the Library of Congress began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War, culminating in the construction of a separate library building and the transference of all copyright deposit holdings to the Library. During the rapid expansion of the 20th century the Library of Congress assumed a preeminent public role, becoming a "library of last resort" and expanding its mission for the benefit of scholars and the American people.

The Library's primary mission is researching inquiries made by members of Congress through the Congressional Research Service. Although it is open to the public, only Members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and other high-ranking government officials may check out books. As the de facto national library, the Library of Congress promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book and Poet Laureate.

Most Of us would have seen this spot.. But where is it?? was all the people in India was thinking after seen this place in the Rajni’s Blockbuster Movie “Endhiran- The Robot” , where Ash and Rajni dance in a Desert Or can I call It Lagoon ,here are some of the info about this Location

It seems incredible but in a country that keeps around 30% of the fresh water and shelters the largest rain forest in the world, we can find a “desert”.

Located in the State of Maranhão, on the north shore of Brazil, the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park is an area of about 300 square kilometers (155,000 ha) of blinding white dunes and deep blue lagoons, forming one of the most beautiful and unique places in the world. The dunes invade the continent over 50km (31 miles) from the cost creating a landscape that reminds a white bed sheet, when seen from above. That’s the reason of the name given to the region: “lençóis” in Portuguese means “bed sheets”. What defers this region from a desert is the amount of rain the drops over the dunes, creating ponds of crystal clear water on the depression between dunes. Despite its desert-like appearance, Lençóis Maranhenses records an annual rainfall of 1,600mm (i.e. 62.9 inches), 300 times more than in the Saara.

During the period of drought, the lagoons evaporates and become completely dried. After the rainy season, the lagoons are home of many species of fishes, turtles and clams. The mystery in this story lies in the fact that when the lagoons fill up, life comes back, as if they had never left the place. One of the hypotheses to explain the phenomenon is that the eggs of the fish and crabs are maintained alive in the sand, exploding when rain come back.

The strong heat in the region (over 30ºC) is rewarded by a cooling bath in the crystalline lagoons and the untouched beaches, that occupy about 70km. The most famous lagoon, due to its beauty, is the Blue Lagoon. In the borders of the park we can find big mangroves that are home of crabs, clams and birds. The region is one of the best in Brazil for Bird Watching, where it is possible to admire the “Maçarico”, the “Marreca-de-asa-azul” and the “Trinta-réis”.

The region has little infrastructure for tourism, but Barreirinhas has hotels, hostels, restaurants and handicrafts shops. In the villages it is possible to appreciate the typical food of the region and have contact with its sympathetic people.

The Lençóis Maranheses are certainly a unique place you will never forget.

Monday, October 25, 2010

iaRed Square is a city square in Moscow. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. As major streets of Moscow radiate from here in all directions, being promoted to major highways outside the city, Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and all of Russia.

The name of Red Square derives neither from the color of the bricks around it nor from the link between the color red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya) can mean either “red” or “beautiful”. The place was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1990.

St. Basil’s Cathedral

The Cathedral of Intercession of Theotokos on the Moat , popularly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is a Russian Orthodox cathedral erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century. It was the tallest building of Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as "Trinity Church" and later "Trinity Cathedral", contained eight side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local Fool Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and the 17th centuries the cathedral, perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the tsar.
The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture: "It is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century but has never been reproduced directly.
The cathedral has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929and, as of 2009, remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The cathedral has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990

Lenin's Mausoleum

Lenin's Mausoleum also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated in Red Square in the center of Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the current resting place of Vladimir Lenin. His embalmed body has been on public display there since shortly after his death in 1924 (with rare exceptions in wartime). Aleksey Shchusev's diminutive but monumental granite structure incorporates some elements from ancient mausoleums, such as the Step Pyramid and the Tomb of Cyrus the Great.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I was a bit surprising when I found out from Firefox Site the release of Firefox 4 with all its New Looks.. But not thrilled because it has similar feel of opera 10.x when i saw its GUI,I can call it a replica.. but people Its not the same thou

Feature Spotlight

Stay in Sync

Synchronize your settings, passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs and other customizations across multiple devices so you can take Firefox with you wherever you go.

Organize Your Tabs

Reclaim your browser from tab clutter! Drag and drop your tabs into manageable groups that you can organize, name and arrange in a fun and visual way.

Manage Your Add-ons

An easier way to manage your add-ons and discover new options for personalizing your browsing.

Tabs are now on top by default on Windows only - OSX and Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change. If you don't like tabs on top, you can disable them by right-clicking empty space on the toolbar chrome and unchecking Tabs on Top.

On Windows Vista and Windows 7 the menu bar has been replaced with theFirefox button. You can get your menu bar back by right clicking empty space on the toolbar chrome and making sure Menu Bar is checked.

You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar. This feature is a little strange, and I'm not entirely sure how often a person would use it in its current implementation, but I suppose it could come in handy.

The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux. Handy, since many of us have been consolidating those buttons since Firefox 3.

The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you'd like).

Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime or Microsoft Silver-light plug-ins.

Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format. Remember, WebM is Google's open video format.

More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.

That covers pretty much everything that stands out in Firefox 4 so far, though a couple of feature tweaks that aren't specifically highlighted in the release notes that we particularly like include:

The new add-ons manager, which loads in a tab of its own instead of a separate window.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Hunyad Castle is a Gothic-Renaissance castle in Transylvanian Hunedoara, present-day Romania.

The castle is a relic of the Hunyadi dynasty. In 1409, the castle was given to John Hunyadi's father, Voyk, by Sigismund, king of Hungary, as severance. The castle was restored between 1446 and 1453 by his son John Hunyadi. It was built mainly in Gothic style, but has Renaissance architectural elements. It features tall and strong defense towers, an interior yard and a drawbridge. Built over the site of an older fortification and on a rock above the small river Zlaşti, the castle is a large and imposing building with tall and diversely colored roofs, towers and myriad windows and balconies adorned with stone carvings.

The current castle is the result of a fanciful restoration campaign undertaken after a disastrous fire and many decades of total neglect. It has been noted that modern "architects projected to it their own wistful interpretations of how a great Gothic castle should look

Tourists are told that it was the place where Vlad III of Wallachia (commonly known as Vlad the Impaler) was held prisoner for 7 years after he was deposed in 1462.

Near a 15th-century chapel in the castle years is a well 30 meters deep. The legend says that this fountain was dug by twelve Turkish prisoners to whom liberty was promised if they reached water. After 15 years they completed the well, but their captors did not keep their promise. It is said that the inscription on a wall of the well means "you have water, but not soul". Specialists, however, have translated the inscription as "he who wrote this inscription is Hasan, who lives as slave of the giaours, in the fortress near the church".

In February 2007, Hunyad Castle played host to the British paranormal television program Most Haunted Live! for a three-night live investigation into the spirits reported to be haunting the castle. Results were inconclusive.